Net Neutrality And Annals Of The New Bipartisan Governing, Cont'd

The president put his administration squarely behind net neutrality today. (Where in the name of god was this before a midterm election when, because the kidz stayed home, the average age of the voter was approximately half-past the Hallmark Channel? Yeesh.) It is straight populism, offered in language very simple and very clear.

In the statement, and a video on the White House website, Mr. Obama urged the Federal Communications Commission to adopt the strictest set of neutrality rules possible and to treat consumer broadband service as a public utility, similar to telephone or power companies. "We cannot allow Internet service providers to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas," Mr. Obama wrote in the statement.

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(That "marketplace of ideas" fillip is pretty nifty. It puts the Internet into the direct line of evolution in free speech that began with Milton and Aeropagitica. Free speech in the modern age, as it turns out, should belong to you as well as to Monsanto, and to snarky blogs as well as to expensive attack ads. Who knew?)